Blog entry
February 12 2025
Yesterday evening's moon, rising softly in the east.
A little later there was a ring around it with snow clouds moving in.
This morning the clematis is furred with flakes.
The geese are visiting the schoolyard.
Overdyeing some marigold yellow threads with indigo.
August 15 2024
The finches love the sunflowers. If you look closely, you'll see him. Every spring I say there's not enough room for sunflowers, but a few plant themselves anyway. They're great! I really have to plant some on purpose next year.
I've been working on dyeing more silk threads, though it's really too hot for much outdoor activity.
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These madder roots were dug up last fall.
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Greens
I often receive customer requests for more green silks. This is always a welcome excuse to experiment with shades of yellow and indigo
Sometimes the yellow comes from coreopsis flowers. Even the red ones give yellow dye.
Reaching naturally dyed green is intersting and challenging
It's so rewarding to see the different, (un-repeatable) shades!
So far, July has been packed with projects and flowers
More Naturally dyed embroidery silks
May 10, 2018
Redbud (Cercis Canadensis)
How quickly the days, weeks and months rush along! Every day there are new amazements. I like to spend my time in the garden and pay close attention. The only trouble is that I don't get much done indoors.
Milkweed (Asclepius syriaca)
As I was emptying the old potting soil from a flowerpot, I discovered several pods of milkweed that had dropped into the soil and been covered up.These seed pods had overwintered here and are now sprouting.
Madder roots and silk
Madder patch May 2017 (rubia tinctorum)
I've used and re-used all of last years' home-grown madder roots so many times that now there's barely a whisper of pink left. Although they still look rosy- red, I don't know if I can coax any more color from these roots. They're so pretty, I don't want to compost them yet. I might just dry them once more for a future experiment.
Old madder roots from last years' garden
Elsewhere